Wednesday, 28 March 2012

I was chatting to someone the other day and they were worrying about Smart meters. These are utility meters that can communicate their readings via the mobile phone network to the utility companies to allow them to read your gas & electric meters without sending a meter reader or getting you to do it & submit the readings on their web site.

They'd been surfing the internet and had found sites warning about cancer & other health problems caused by the RF radiation from Smart meters. These sites are creating fear, uncertainty & doubt in order to sell solutions to problems that don't exist. Oh dear!

A power loss of 90% i.e. down to one tenth = 10dB. One hundredth = 20dB. One thousandth = 30dB. One millionth = 60dB. One million millionth = 120dB. One half = 3dB. One quarter = 6dB. One eighth = 9dB.

Smart meters transmit at frequencies from 900MHz (Vodafone & O2) to 1.8GHz & 1.9GHz (Orange & T-mobile etc). People don't seem to mind having mobile phones (~2W peak RF power output when a call is in progress) glued to their ears for long periods of time.

If you stand 4 metres away (at the end of someone's garden path, say) from a Smart meter fitted to their house & operating at 900MHz, there's a path loss of 29dB. The RF energy reaching you is 1/800th of that emitted by the meter. Also, the meter doesn't produce RF energy all of the time. The duty cycle is 1% to 5% i.e. RF energy is only produced for 1/100th to 1/20th of the time.

In conclusion, even if you stand with your nose touching the window of a Smart meter (which would be silly), you get less RF radiation (RF radiation is Transverse Electromagnetic Radiation a.k.a. radio waves and not ionising radiation a.k.a. what radioactive materials emit) than what you get from your mobile phone.

1) In the early stages of mental decline, there is still self-awareness and the process is frightening. Constant reassurance is the best thing for somebody in this state. As self-awareness fades, one becomes happy. An example of this is HAL-9000 as his memory modules were being unplugged in the film "2001 a space odyssey". My mum is in this state, thank goodness.

I entered this state temporarily during an Insulin Shock Test on my pituitary gland, when my serum glucose fell to 1.5mmol/L (27mg/dL) under medical supervision. I was blissfully unaware of my confusion. Too much alcohol in the blood also causes loss of self-awareness. I entered this state last week while socialising with a friend. After half a bottle of White Zinfandel, I was blissfully unaware of my merriness!

2) When I see "arterial stiffness", I think "inappropriate calcification" and "Vitamin K2".

3) Transient Ischaemic Attacks (TIAs a.k.a. mini-strokes) cause loss of blood flow to parts of the brain, resulting in amnesia. There may be some permanent brain damage, depending on how long the TIAs last. TIAs can be caused by spasms in arteries within the brain. Ditto migraines.

Thursday, 22 March 2012

The above warning is on mum's fish oil and on all supplements. The recommended daily intake (RDI) for Seven Seas fish oil for adults & children over 12 is 10ml/day, or 1 capsule/day if in capsules.
1 capsule contains 360mg of EPA+DHA.

Seven Seas fish oil must be dangerous stuff!

Here's some perspective. A small can (213g) of wild Alaskan red salmon contains 14g of fish oil and 1.9g of EPA+DHA. That's 533% the amount you get in one capsule of Seven Seas fish oil. There are no warnings on small cans of wild Alaskan red salmon to not eat more than a fifth of a can a day. I usually eat a whole can at a time. My brain really likes this. See Guess who didn't look after his brain?

For breakfast, I sometimes eat ten Brazil nuts and ten prunes washed down with a milky coffee. Ten Brazil nuts contain ~4,000ug of selenium. That's about 1,000% the RDI for selenium. However, I'm not showing any symptoms of selenium toxicity.

EDIT: I may be showing one symptom. Somebody told me that I smelled slightly of garlic. I had eaten a lot of raw onion on liver pate earlier that day and I was giving off a smell of onion. This has happened before.

Thursday, 15 March 2012

At mum's care home on Wednesday, the activities ladies held a tai-chi session for the residents, as movement is good for their muscles and well-being. They roped me in as well. Mum was reading a Henley-on-Thames leaflet so she didn't join-in.
Tai-chi is harder than it looks! Mum noticed that I was waving my arms about in a graceful manner and stopped reading the leaflet. She looked slightly bemused (as would you if you saw what I was doing) and started smiling.

It was also somebody's birthday, so we all sang "Happy birthday to you" to him and gave him three "hip-hip hoorays" followed by a round of applause.

To the astonishment of the activities ladies, mum started to clap her hands. 5,000iu/day of Vitamin D3 + me being chatty, For The Win!

The nurse on duty also had a chat with me about the best way to give mum 10ml/day of fish oil and 2.5ml/day of Epsom Salts. She later told me that mum swallowed the fish oil without any problems (mum loves smoked salmon) and swallowed the Epsom Salts dissolved in a cup of juice without any problems either.

In other news, I now have a Blackberry 8900. This blog looks rather different when displayed on a tiny screen.

Tuesday, 13 March 2012

If it's good enough for CarbSane, it's good enough for me!
Somebody found my blog by Googling for:-

nigeepoo idiocy

It's probably due to the ongoing discussions about politics! ;-p

In other news, I noticed that another four rooms on mum's floor (high-dependence) of the care home no longer had names by the doors. This means that another four old folk just died. That's five deaths on mum's floor in one week.

Mum was on good form on Monday. I gave her somebody's thrown-away Daily Mail (don't shoot me!) and she enjoyed looking through it, though I had to turn the pages for her. She managed to read some words out loud and even recognised Dustin Hoffman in a picture.

I supplied the nurse with an unopened bottle of Seven Seas high-strength fish oil and an unopened tub of Epsom Salts with instructions on daily dosage.

P.S. The doctor didn't even ask for supporting evidence. He just said "Yeah, other relatives do that. No problem. He just wanted to check for contraindications, which is fine by me. I have plans to ask him to allow mum to have one more supplement that may help her bones & brain. Any ideas as to what that might be, O.K.?

P.P.S. Another lady that's been at the care home since day one died Wednesday night/Thursday morning. She died from terminal cancer, but she had been physically crippled by Parkinson's Disease. R.I.P.

For example, one chocolate doesn’t disturb my blood glucose & insulin, but I still crave another. And another. Ad nauseam."

Physiological cravings take hours to kick-in.
Neurological cravings take seconds to kick-in.

Emily Deans wrote:-
"Multiple times I’ve used naltrexone (an opiate blocker) to stop binge eating. The cravings go away. It only takes a few weeks. It’s a nice way to undo addiction/reward without starving someone… not FDA approved."

That's pretty damning evidence for the existence of Food Reward. How can naltrexone block something that doesn't exist?

Monday, 5 March 2012

Basically, everybody who blogs about Diet & Nutrition is a nerd to some degree. If you're that obsessive about your diet that you've achieved success with it, you must be nerdly inclined. So here's a list (nerds love to make lists) of some nerdy bloggers. This is meant to be a bit of fun, so don't go all nerdy on me and shoot the messenger!

2) Denise Minger: Denise cracks me up with some of the stuff she comes out with. She has an infectious giggle when she's lecturing. She also has the cojones to take on giants like T. Colon Campbell (oops!).

4) Richard Nikoley: This chap also really knows his stuff (except for one topic ;-D). I majorly pissed Richard off recently while discussing politics with him. We have totally different views. I goaded him into calling me a "miserable, dishonest, lying f*ck of a wasted f*ck." We seem to be getting on better, now. I mentioned politics once, but I think I got away with it!

5) praguestepchild : An ex-engineer, so an O.K. bloke. I goaded Sean into calling me a "hysterical c*nt". My bad!

6) Lyle McDonald: What Lyle doesn't know about Diet & Nutrition fits on a postage stamp. I've probably pissed him off as well!

7) LeonRover: Not a blogger, but he's proved invaluable in correcting me with expressions such as "Stone the flaming crows" and "No way, José".

"At 66, Davy Jones appears to be living a healthy life. He was a vegetarian. He goes on a regular morning run. He was not just a horse owner but also a rider. Davy Jones seems to be generally fit and healthy to succumb to a deadly heart attack."

P.P.S. I spoke to the nurse on Friday 2nd March about mum's medical history. Before Vitamin D3, mum had a Urinary Tract Infection in the previous 9 months. Since Vitamin D3, mum has had no medical problems and she has been happy & contented. Her serum Vitamin D level is in the normal range.

About Me

I have a B.Sc.(Hons) in Electronic Engineering but no qualifications in Diet, Nutrition & Fitness, which is why I back-up what I write with links to high-quality evidence.

You can email me at
nigel.kinbrum@entee'ellworld.com
(say it!).

My suggestions must ALWAYS be checked by your Pharmacist/GP first, in case of contraindications with other medical conditions or medications that I don't know about. My suggestions are adjuncts to, NOT replacements for medication(s).

If symptoms improve, ask your GP about a reduction in medication(s), if it's/they're causing you problems.

Cheers, Nigel Kinbrum B.Sc.(Hons)Eng.

Moderation Policy:-READ THIS BEFORE COMMENTING. I can approve comments using my phone when I'm away from my lap-top, but I prefer to type replies on my lap-top, so please be patient.

Competing Interest:- When you get a $5 discount by using code NIG935 on iHerb.com, I get a $5 reward.